Origin

Along with battalion (late 16th century), batter (Middle English), and battery, the word battle goes back through French to Latin battuere ‘to strike, beat’, also found in combat (mid 16th century) ‘fight together’. Battle appears in many phrases. We say that we are fighting a losing battle when a struggle is bound to end in failure, or that something that contributes to success is half the battle. A fiercely contested fight or dispute is a battle royal, which was originally a fight with several combatants.